jtabraham

Anyone got any tips on getting the old bushes out on the front wishbone?
Cheers in advance

911

Yes, done this job myself.
Get the wishbone off the car. Place (gently) in a vice and note that the bush has two slots moulded through the rubber bush. Pass a hacksaw blade through the one slot (push it through hard) and refit to hacksaw frame.
Now, CAREFULLY hacksaw the outer metal sleeve evenly untill you JUST break through along it's length. A lot of heat is generated, and you will be sweating too! Keep spraying WD40 to the jiont where you are cutting to ease the friction of the rubber and to get between the sleeve and the wishbone. There comes a point where you will be able to TAP the bush out (honest) and the wishbone will be a little scared but not cut. It takes time....
Hope this helps. If you are doing the whole chassis as I did be ready for a lot of hard work.
911

dowser

"If you are doing the whole chassis as I did be ready for a lot of hard work." A mild unstatement

Richard

StickyMicky

cant you burn the old rubber out and have the metal drop out that way?

jtabraham

Thanks, I will be giving it ago at the weekend.
Had enough this week changing shocks, top mounts, drop links, engine mounts and gearbox mount.
I am pretty much so sick of it.
It seemed such agood idea when I ordered it all.
Cheers
Jt

David_Wallis

as micky says..

OXY and acetylene (sp) and a big hammer and chisel...

or the old wheel bearing trick of a bead of weld on 200+ amps to heat it up enough that it just drops off..

Beware if you set the bush on fire to remove it.. (easiest way) theres lots of smoke and the rubber drips and stays on fire on the way to the floor..

David

911

Gentlemen!
I thought we were engineers!
The Oxy trick works well! Did it on my 911 but the bushes were vulcanised on(!). Also. my car is an Sti so has the sexy aluminium wishbones. When all the rubber is out, you have recovered in hospital from the fumes (note David's comments) you STILL have to get the steel sleeve out!
The fact it is hard work? Well yes, but removing gearboxes and rear diffs is THE hard work on a Scooby.....
When all this is done, I really am not sure if it really improved anything, and I race my Sti on tarmac.
Best suspension mods are what you have already done. Are you doing the real deal and changing the rear diff bushes and pinion support fram bushes?
If not you really are doing it the easy way!
911
Also sick of tweeking Scoobys (for now)

dowser

Most of the rear end also use thin metal inner sleeves - I just cut the rubber out and then the sleeve with a hacksaw.

On the smaller ones I used a bearing puller pushing the centre section. Worse ones were the rear diff hangers....I ended up dropping the entire subframe spider to get 'em out.

I noticed a huge improvement after doing this 911 - perhaps the STi ones are already stiffer to start with?

Richard

911

Richard, probably my lack of sensitivity! 911's dull most of the senses.....
The diff change is a bitch, but is does kill off (most) of the rear end jumping about when you dump the clutch at 5000 rpm!
The only way is to drop the whole rear I think.
I did a stack of other mods to the car when i did the poly bushes, so these will have masked the effect a bit.
My front end does creek when 'cold' otr the start of a journey until the grease has freed up.
Graham.